Why do readers love Draco?(Was Why do readers Love Snape (& Draco/ Snape...)

[heiditandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 33402


--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Aja <aromano at i...> wrote:

> Actually, we don't know that at all, IIRC.  The only *real* 
exchange we
> ever see between Draco and his father--real as in, completely 
private (so
> they think)--is in the scene at Knockturn Alley.  There, Lucius is 
nothing
> but abusive and critical.  

Furthermore, when we see Draco and Lucius in public, like at Flourish 
& Blotts or at the Quidditch World Cup, Draco doesn't say a *word* 
when Lucius is there. He does speak to him in front of Mr Borgin, 
granted, but there is, to ther knowlege, nobody else there. It's not 
really "public", is it?

Aja also wrote: 
> And JKR never explicitly *says*
> that Malfoy knows his father is a Death-Eater.  At the Quidditch 
Cup he
> neither admits nor denies it--a clever Malfoy tactic when you don't 
know
> the answer to the question, imo.
Furthermore, not all the people on the field may've been the Death 
Eaters who were at Voldemort's gathering. We don't hear Narcissa's 
name mentioned as among the Death Eaters in the circle, but if she's 
not on the field, then why isn't Draco with her at the World Cup? I 
wouldn't presume that participation in the levitation of the Muggle 
means that one is a Death Eater.

Serendust
> > Things would have to take a big turn for the worse at chez 
> > Malfoy, before Draco would have any reason to feel hateful toward 
> > Lucius.
Not necessarily. If Lucius has been lying to Draco over the years, 
and it's clear that at a minimum he hasn't been telling him 
everything, that, compounded with pressures about school and 
quidditch, could be very reasonable camel-back-breakers. 


JChutney wrote: 
> I think this is an age thing and a Fanon/Canon thing.  I'm older 
> than Draco but younger than Snape so I find I enjoy both characters 
> very much. 
Yes and no. Another listie, I know, is hunting for a poll from about 
a year ago - the older the person was, the more likely thy were to 
either have sympathy for Draco or see that there is the prospect of 
redeption. 

>But they are both different kinds of mean and 
> Draco "seems" to be heading in a darker direction than Snape.  
I dont really see how Draco can be heading in a darker direction than 
Snape. I mean, Snape became a death eater while he was in his early 
20s, he showed up at school knowig more Dark curses than the 7th 
years (as Sirius says in GoF) - I don't really see the propect for 
Draco being darker than that, at least not now. 

> Also Draco seems motivated entirely by envy, a very unattractive 
> quality.  We don't know exactly what motivates Snape, so are free 
to 
> speculate

Well, his motivations regarding Ron aren't motivated by envy, 
although I think he is envois of Hermione in academia a bit, and any 
envy by Draco of Harry is as misplaced s that emotion in Hermione  - 
what does harry have that Draco doesn't, other than perhaps friends? 
And if he's envious of Harry's friendships with his housemates,etc., 
which I think is entirely possible, then isn't that just so pathetic 
and sad? I'm likely to sympathize with someone who has no real 
friends, just hangers-on. 


> By 
> the end of GoF, Draco talks about how sorry Potter will be that he 
> didn't join the Deatheaters whereas Snape seems ready to risk his 
> life to fight them.  There are numerous example of Snape's goodness 
> but only one (maybe) of Draco's.  

But Snape has 20+ years on Draco! We're led to belive that he's 
already seen the worst sorts of things in the world - murder, people 
turning on friends and family, nobody knowiing who to trust. Draco 
has never seen bottom - at least not yet - and I want him to because 
I want to know what effect hitting it will have on him. How do we 
know that there were any examples of Snape's goodness before the age 
of 15?


We don't.

Furthermore, every time that Draco's reported Harry, other than the 
time he
sorta tricked him out of the dorms for the duel (which I think 
would've been
less than an expulsion-level offense anyway), harry was breaking 
school
rules - being in Hogsmeade without a permission slip, posession of an
illegal dragon, etc.	
	
I also disagree with JChutney that the fanon draco is a construct of 
12 year olds. Many of the novel-length fics in which Draco is Not A 
Bad Guy are by grownups who post to FictionAlley.org - including but 
not limited to Cassie, Lori, Ebony, Alex, John Walton, Barb (although 
her curent fic is an AU, which doesn't count when appraising canon!
draco in the same way) ( : also adds self to list) - yes, many of the 
early, pre-Goblet of Fire fics which include a NotEvil!Draco are by 
teenagers, including AliciaSue's wonderfully funny An Unlikely Coven, 
which I think included the first Draco/Ginny pairing in a novel-
length fanfic, but given the large number of over-17s writing HP 
fanfic, I just don't see, or perhaps it's that I don't pay as much 
attention to, the fanfic effortsof those under 13. . And IMHO, Fanon!
Draco as described in Ali Wildgoose's primer for the newbie to the HP 
fanfic side of the forum -  "a vaguely effeminate, devastatingly 
handsome sex symbol with silver blonde hair and an angst-ridden inner 
life. Depending on who you ask, he's in love with Hermione, Ginny, 
Harry...even Ron, though most agree that they hate each other. Draco 
is a basically good person who has been near hopelessly corrupted by 
his upbringing, using his razor wit, regal arrogance and bitter 
sarcasm as mask his inner loneliness and despair. He is abused, both 
mentally and physically, by his father; and though his mother loves 
him, she's helpless to protect him from Lucius' cold wrath. Draco is 
the anti-hero, the rogue, the "bad boy" all the women (or men) fall 
for") http://homepages.nyu.edu/~amw243/resources/newbie.html - is 
really the Draco created by those who write Harry Potter slash.

That's not the Draco I see in canon. It's not the Draco that I write 
fanfic about, and it's not really the Draco I read fanfic about, 
although in modding FictionAlley I do rea a lot of stuff for "the 
job." That's more a "catchy sum-up" rather than a perfectly realistic 
description of Draco depictions. 


Donna wrote:
> Since we mostly see things in the books through  Harry's 
perspective, we 
> don't know if Dumbledore or anyone else has tried to talk to him 
about this. 

True. And I just found a post of mine from October, where I posted:
> You know, people keep saying that at Hogwarts, Draco should be 
exposed to
> different and positive ideas, but I just don't see it. Other than 
at the 
> 4th year leaving feast, Dumbledore never addresses the students on
> issues of bias and prejudice- not even 2nd year when muggle-borns 
are
> being petrified and the students are terrified. So where would Draco
> learn them from? In class? We haven't seen any class where ethics 
are
> taught. The Slytherin common-room? Not all those students' parents 
are
> Death Eaters- so do they debate blood purity issues? How would a
> student's opinions trump Lucius Malfoy's in Draco's eyes?

I would like to think that his relationship with Snape might give the 
professo a chance to influence Draco's perspectives on this issue at 
some point, when Snape thinks it's necessary and not dangerous to do 
so. Or at least not immediately fatal for either or both of them. 

One of the things I think is useful about Draco is that he *has the 
potential* to be the character who changes his attitudes the most. I 
think that if JKR makes him evil and keeps him that way, it will be 
troubling, at least for me, to see a character who we've "known" 
since he was 10 or 11 move lockstep towards Evil and Darkness just 
because his parents are - in a series where an underlying theme has 
been "choices" I see Draco, at present in canon, as a character who's 
never had to make one - and possibly never really been in a position 
where he could. He's been indoctrinated and given the fact that we 
know that Lucius is a homicidal (to Draco's classmates, in giving the 
book to Ginny) abusive (to Dobby) git (to Hagrid and Dumbledore), it 
may not even be safe for him to break out of his programming yet. 

But I hope he will - even if it's not safe, even if it's dangerous - 
even if he has to give up every little bit of his to-date sheltered 
upbringing. Because it will make an impression on the readers, and I, 
for one, am really hoping it will happen. 
	
	



heidi, wondering if there's  high proportion of Joseph fans among 
Draco supporters? I mean, it just goes to show that when you expose a 
spoiled rich child to angst and difficult hurdles, he might turn out 
to be a Really Good Guy.

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